Sara's Blog

My friend Marylyn in Australia is doing something really cool, and I just had to share it with you. She has worked quite a bit with seniors who have dementia, and recently passed her exam to become a PCA (Personal Care Assistant) in Aged Care. She’s doing some amazing things, including teaching them to make cards and other paper crafts. Well, I think Marylyn explains it best so I’m going to share with you what she told me about the projects and the ladies she works with:

“They are kept fairly simple so they can manage, as I find they can become frustrated and even agitated if things are too difficult–some need a lot of assistance. The round cards are ones we have made regularly using different pictures–they love this design and love making them; as you can see by some of these photos, they enjoy the interaction so much. Their personal achievement is unbelievable. Now that I am also a staff member, it is beautiful to wake them up in the morning and have their faces light up and say “you're the card lady!!!”–where with others it becomes a confusing issue, but I now know how to work around that....

As you will see by several of the photos I have sent to you, just the look/laughter on their faces is worth every second you put into doing something special for them. (Some of these sweeties are early dementia but the pleasure and happiness in their faces is worth more than a thousand words!!!)”

How great is that? Marylyn, thanks for the inspiration!

  

  

PS. I’ve posted up a digital page showing some photos from Sinterklaas’ visit to Amsterdam. Keith and I went to the pier to see him sail into town—along with everyone in Amsterdam under the age of six!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Alas, here in Amsterdam it was just another ordinary day. I miss my mom’s vegetarian stuffing, the mashed potatoes, my sister’s cranberry bread and being with my family. Keith has planned a few days in London together for us this weekend instead. (I think he was secretly afraid I’d attempt to make a turkey—not that you can find one in Holland…and not that it would fit in our Easy-Bake toy-sized oven. Also, I’m a terrible cook and we’d probably end up with Indonesian take-out anyway.)

So…I’ve mentioned before that we’re coming out with a new line this winter called Sara’s Surfaces. Well, I’ve got a few advance pieces from the line and I’ve been having a blast playing with them. Here’s one partially decorated Mini Folder—I still have to add leaves on the flowers, but was so excited by it I just had to share! The Mini Folder is made from heavyweight paper, glossy on one side and matte on the other, and it’s perfect for stashing gift cards, notes or a teabag! The whole line will be available in the next issue of Paper Wishes!

  

One last note—if you, like me, have military photos (my dad was a career Army officer), check out Paper Wishes Online Scrapbooking . You can get free downloads of all pages created in the Military Pages section plus a 25% discount on professionally printed Lifetime Pages™ for Military pages. A military album makes a great keepsake for any soldier or military career person and a special way to thank the men and women who wear (or wore) the uniform.

It’s definitely the holiday season—Sinterklaas is coming to town on Sunday! He lives in Spain (I guess it’s warmer there than the North Pole…or Amsterdam) so he’ll arrive at the dock by steamboat, accompanied by his white horse and the controversial Zwarte Piet—I’ve heard there’s a big parade, floats, jesters and loads of sweets and pepernoten tossed to the crowd. I can’t wait to see.

(In the meantime, the little neighborhood bakeries are filled with all kinds of tempting holiday cookies and breads. I’ve been conducting informal but highly scientific research in order to find the best holiday treats in Amsterdam but haven’t come to any conclusions yet so I’ll keep tasting...I mean, testing.)

Speaking of the holidays, I’ve just realized I have a crazy busy schedule next month. I’ve been panicking about my Christmas cards this year—in order to get them designed, made and mailed out in time for Christmas I would basically have to start right now! So I am really excited and really relieved that HOTP now has photo holiday cards on PaperWishesOnline.com. The designs are so cute! And it’s easy…you just drag and drop your photo onto the card, type in your holiday message and you’re done. Hot Off The Press will print the cards on heavyweight paper and send them to you with envelopes. Now I just have to get Keith “Don’t Take My Picture” Naumann to agree to a photo shoot!

Just arrived back from Portugal late last night. What a trip! After much to-do, the class kits arrived at midnight the night before classes started. This is when the travel and teaching bit is definitely not glamorous.

Anyway, the classes themselves went just fine and the ladies (and one gentleman) were so nice and it was great to have a chat with them. Dawn really put on a spectacular event for all 140+ people—they’re going home with loads of completed cards and tons of new techniques. Here’s one of the projects we did in my class. The Flower Brad Buddy has been stamped with StazOn.

Last weekend Keith and I did something really fun—Amsterdam’s Museum Nacht. On Saturday night, over 40 city museums were open from 7pm to 2am and one ticket gets you in to all of them. Each museum has a party going on, with music and DJs and food and drinks and all the exhibits are open. The whole city turned out and it was so cool to see! We didn’t think we’d need all seven hours but realized we easily could have gone the whole night, there was so much to see and do. Alas, we had to leave the Rijksmuseum (home of the Rembrandts) at midnight so Keith could catch the U of O football game on the internet. (Apparently it was worth it, the Ducks won so Keith doubly happy.)

Well, gotta go—tonight I’m doing a chat on Scrap-a-Faire.com!

PS. I’ve added some photos from the annual HOTP Halloween bash in the Photo
Gallery. Take a look at a few of my co-workers, fitted out in their creative
costumes. (This was my Halloween celebration, as Oct. 31 is just another day
here in Amsterdam!)

I can’t believe it’s November already—and that we’ve celebrated two years of Weekly Webisodes! The time has really flown, and if you haven’t checked out this week’s segment, you’ll definitely want to…not only can you meet the people who make each Webisode come together each week and see some of our best bloopers, you can also download free goodies and enter our drawing for one of three prize packages—each one worth $250 in paper crafting supplies! (Hey, I might just enter myself!)

This month I’m also looking forward to teaching in Portugal. Dawn Bibby, who has the Paper Crafting with Dawn Bibby show on QVC UK, is hosting a big event for card makers and scrapbookers. It’s always such fun to spend time with her and her team. I’m looking forward to sun, sand and paper crafting! (If you’re going, I’ll see you there…if you’re not going, but you live in the UK, you might check out Dawn’s website for more workshops. It’s http://www.topazcrafts.tv/about-us.html.

PS. Check the photo gallery for a digital spread from our vacation last week to Israel!